The present invention relates to apparatuses for the soft machining of bevel gears, especially apparatuses designed for dry machining. The invention also relates to a respective method.
There are various machines which are used in the production of bevel gears and similar gearwheels. There has been a desire for some time to automate the production. One solution that has made only limited headway is a machining center which is designed in such a way that a large number of production steps can be performed on one and the same machine. Such machines are not only very complex and therefore expensive, but also require a relatively large amount of work in preparatory setup (setup time). On the other hand, such machines that were developed with a view to high flexibility are rather suited for individual productions or very small series.
The European patent EP 0 832 716 B1 shows and describes a compact machine which is designed for turning and gear hobbing a workpiece, with said workpiece not having to be re-chucked or transferred. In other words, the workpiece sits on a main spindle after chucking and is machined there with different tools. It is regarded as a disadvantage that as a result of the arrangement of the different elements it is not designed to carry out dry machining since the removal of the hot chips is especially relevant in dry machining. Moreover, the freedom of movement is limited with respect to the workpiece as a result of the lateral arrangement of the two carriages with the tools. The shown machine is not suitable for machining bevel gears or the like, but is designed for machining cylinder gears.